1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital TV (television receiver), and more particularly to a digital TV and a driving method thereof which enable a user to view the digital TV without interruption even if the presently used operating system is in an abnormal state.
2. Description of the Related Art
Web boxes or Internet TVs mainly use Windows™ or Linux™ as their operating system for the convenience of users.
However, if the operating system becomes unstable, the system should be rebooted. If the operating system is rebooted as above, all application programs, which are operating in the present system, should be terminated.
In order to solve this problem, the existing digital TV receivers heighten their reliability by using an embedded operating system having a high stability. However, such an embedded operating system has the drawbacks in that it cannot provide a user-friendly interface.
Also, the embedded operation system has many difficulties in implementing functions, which electric home appliances should necessarily have, by a web browser and so on.
Accordingly, in order to solve the problems, many manufacturers have developed many PC-based digital TVs having the operating system such as Windows™ or Linux™.
However, if many applications are simultaneously driven under the above-described operating system, the reliability of the operating system may deteriorate. That is, due to an error of the operating system, the operation of the PC system may be stopped. As a result, if the rebooting of the PC causes any problem in a receiving part of the digital TV, the use value of the PC-based digital TV may deteriorate. Accordingly, even if the operating system operates in error, it is required for the user to continuously view the PC-based digital TV.
In the PC-based digital TV operating system, due to the error of the applications programs, the system is stopped more frequently than the embedded operating system. Accordingly, if the receiving part of the digital TV can be controlled even though the system is stopped due to the error of the application programs, the viewer will be able to view the digital TV without interruption.